LACEA honors first Presidents Al Fishlow and Nora Lustig

LACEA is now the leading association of economists interested in the problems of economic and social development in Latin America and the Caribbean. For 25 years we have contributed to strengthening ties between the research community and economic decision makers in the region and we have fostered debate and dissemination of better economic and social policies based on economic research. On the occasion of our 25th Anniversary we ask you to donate to make LACEA financially sustainable for the years to come. Please take one minute to donate and join in the celebration of this milestone. Thank you!

We are pleased to announce that the process to elect the Vice President for the period 2018-2019 (to become President for the period 2020-2021) and six new members of the Executive Committee for the period 2018-2021, is now open and will close on November 19th, 2017 at midnight. Please submit your votes here.

Congratulations to Professors Albert Fishlow and Nora Lustig for their new title of President Emeritus in recognition for the creation of LACEA. The award ceremony took place in the context of the 2017 meeting of LACEA in Buenos Aires, November 10 (Hotel Inter-Continental, 12 PM). Read the whole announcement here.

Sobre México: Temas de Economía,managed by Universidad Iberoamericana-Ciudad de México is currently seeking manuscripts with applied work on the Mexican economy. The Journal publishes online as soon as they are in final publishable form. The journal accepts articles in English and/or Spanish. Please visit this site or write to isidro.soloaga@ibero.mx for further information.

OnlineColleges.net features resources for prospective and current students to cover all topics from applying to college to staying healthy to landing a job after graduation. Recently, the site added a resource guide that provides students with an overview of what open online courses are and how they can be useful for those interested in additional learning opportunities. For more information, you can find the resource here.

Why a Country Case Study Project? Latin America has over 400 million people living in 20+ wonderful “jurisdictions” including and not least Puerto Rico (and Belize). Like Puerto Rico, CAFTA and many of them on or near the equator, Each country/region has its own distinct features and problems (and all are worth visiting, especially when the currency is weak, at it is right now in Argentina…). I was in Buenos Aires for the 22nd Annual LACEA meetings. What a beautiful city! In many respects New York’s past and future: inexpensive Universities, hospitals, beautiful parks and cultural centers, a working and inexpensive subway, many very friendly people, lots of millennials running around who ask you things like “Do you have google maps?” Many “startups” with international names. Uber worked more or less, just $31 to the airport (compared to $50 for regulated taxis, though I may have been overcharged. The case study is an opportunity to apply ideas learned in this course to a specific country or region (Honduras for example is part of the Northern Triangle, including SLV and GTM, the major source of immigration to the U.S. in the last five years, even as net immigration from Mexico reversed starting in 2010).

Please do Present your presentation to the class (in person or via

Everyone writes a case study summary/essay on the final exam. Optional extra credit is the case study presentation to the class. You can also bring quotes from the text in the form of exact quotes or data from the various

What to bring to the Exam: The CCSP is a final exam question your can prepare for and is unique to you. Please bring your printed references, Figures and Tables (pictures? perhaps one or two) to class with you the day of the final.

These should have your name, ECON 3235 and the date of the final exam 12-16-17 on every page. Turn them into me before you start your exam. I review them give you up to 15 points depending on whether you met the minimum requirements for references and Figures/Table (only include Figures and Tables we have discussed and that meet the WB-VC rules, the numbers must be legible and meet the minimum font size, only two significant digits please). One you finish the regular exam you will give it to me, take your case study materials which I have reviewed and write your essay. Your prepared case study materials cannot contain any notes or an outline, except quotes from pages in the text for example or in a key report (CEPAL, WB-LAC or IMF Article IV) be sure to list the page number for each quote or fact. Again, only bring Figures, Tables and references you will have time to cite in your final exam essay. Please be realistic about what you can write in 20-30 minutes, rehearse writing your essay perhaps.

Are review sessions and/or Powerpoint or google slides presentations to the class required?

Answer: Absolutely not, review sessions are group office hours, presentations may be a way to get familiar with your country colleagues research findings (if you are part of a group, as with Brazil, PR, Colombia and Mexico. If you are in a group and do not want to attend your groups presentation/meetings please switch to your own country now!! Peru or Costa Rica or Panama, all wonderful countries not chosen so far… What happens during the review sessions depends completely on who attends. I do not present any new material, I answer questions people have and we watch presentations by a group or person if there is one scheduled. This is just a chance to test your key points and presentation materials, the idea is become literate (and numerate) with presenting credible data on a specific country or region within that country. You can also get feedback on your CCSP before the final exam… unfortunately, I cannot provide individual feedback on the final exam version of your CCSP in time for it to be helpful.

Guidelines for Presentations:

Please follow formatted following the WB guidelines, never use Figures from online sources like the Trading Economics or the WDI (or the IMF). These are typically interactive graphics which means you can see the numbers if you put the cursor over the point. However, we viewers of your presentation cannot do this. Interactive Figures are great except we cannot see the numbers unless we put the pointer over the point.

As is the fashion, these presentations are a blend of TED talk (pictures) and powerpoint or google slides format (no pictures needed unless you prepare a power point). Like a paper, you must include references in standard author/date format and refer to them in your key points. Unlike a paper, you summarize your key points on slides or in the final exam as bullet points of about 6-10 words (adding an author, date, page format reference). Please send all correspondence regarding slides or powerpoint presentations to mcleodassign@gmail.com. Presentation examples: Ecuador AGRUPAR Jessica Way pptx

What is due before at or before final exam?

Everyone will bring a copy of their references and Figures, limit these to references and Figures/Tables you know you will have time to cite. You have perhaps 30 minutes to write out your key findings, which may just be a list of key points with references including page numbers. Please do reference our text if possible (see below). Practice your case study essay by writing out your key points (with references in author, date page number format)

What if i am part of a group working on a particular jurisdiction? (Puerto Rico for example)

Then you must coordinate and each focus on specific topic (see the list below). During the 2nd to last class, give everyone in your group a printed copy of your references, Figures and Tables relevant to your topic (for example, growth strategies, redistribution, or doing business, gender and race etc.). They will give their summary and references as well. Be sure to make sure your key points do not overlap, but also that key complementarities and synergies are noted… see for example the Honduras/Brazil figures/tables linking education, agriculture, gender and migration. You do not need to meet but you do need to exchange paper and electronic copies of your contribution to the CCSP. It is very important that you get credit for the research your have done, and do not expect to get credit for the work of others. What if you do not have time to work with a group? Then please choose your own country. Peru, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Haiti, Ecuador are all wonderful countries and they are available.

Can I add to my case study after the final exam?

Absolutely you can continue writing and send me a word or pdf file after final exam, through say January 2nd 2018 (I will post this date). Make sure your typed essays is relevant to the class, draws on specific references. What you are trying to show is that you appreciate things like standard vetted data sources (the WEO, WDI, etc.) and that you can present and discuss key economic indicators in a way that is clear and credible. All of your Figures and Tables (F&Ts) have sources, and are clearly presented. Online Figures are great, but most of time the numbers are too small to read. We need to make our own diagrams, such as the WEO Figures below and the DB-2 Tables for our country. RERs are welcome always, but not required.

Thinking of an ECON 3235 class presentation? please use this checklist,

These need to be formatted following the WB guidelines, never use Figures from online sources like the Trading Economics or the WDI (or the IMF). These are typically interactive graphics which means you can see the numbers if you put the cursor over the point. However, we viewers of your presentation cannot do this. These Figures are useless unless we can see the numbers. As is the fashion, these presentations are a blend of TED talk (pictures) and powerpoint or google slides format (no pictures needed unless you prepare a power point). Like a paper, you must include references in standard author/date format and refer to them in your key points. Unlike a paper, you summarize your key points on slides or in the final exam as bullet points of about 6-10 words (adding an author, date, page format reference). Please send all correspondence regarding slides or powerpoint presentations to mcleodassign@gmail.com. Presentation examples: Ecuador AGRUPAR Jessica Way pptx

⇒ 1.0 The file name of your presentation should be ECON3235yourNameTopicFall2017 It is best to share your presentation with me in a google drive. Again, mcleodassign@gmail.com is the best email for me.

⇒ 8. Be sure to start and end with a slide summarizing your key points.

*Presentations should always have a goal to communicate a few key points… you only have 15 minutes! Here is an example for Guatemala, a challenge because it is a relatively small country, Brazil is difficult because it is so large! See the Case study presentation guidelines for some suggested key points for both of these presentations.

For CCS focused on making it easier to do business focus on A&L, 2017 Chapter 10 & 11.

For CCS focused on poverty and redistribution, start with Chapter 5 then go to the CEPAL CCT survey or CEQ and/or PovCalnet at the WB

For CCS focused on political economy A&L see Chapter 6 and various BBC, Economist, Americas Quarterly or Guardian country pages for election updates .

Slides, follow the WB Virtual Classroom Guidelines if you can (e.g. the 6-6-6 and minimum fonts rule…). If you are a group, each of you should prepare at least six points spread over at least two slides with a Figure, or a Table and/or a picture with clearly relevant and legible materials (see the pictures in brains and brawn below).

Note that this is a great diagram, almost legible (add a few numbers and it may work). However we cannot use it because it is really an interactive graphic. I downloaded the data for this figure into a csv file (easy) and

How is Argentina doing now, a Macri update from our friends at VP. They are a bit hard on the Kirchners, they did reduce poverty and increase transfers and liberalize the exchange rate regime a bit. However, they misreported inflation and punished private economists who tried to publish real data (one good thing is that we now have the billion prices project to monitor inflation worldwide…)

Dealing with Impunity: there are two sides of the Colombian drug/violence problem. One is gang violence in Colombia (now Central American and Mexico): the para military forces and FARC which recruited many poor young men and women in rural areas. The other problem is the impunity of the wealthy exporters and managers that process and ship cocaine and other drugs to the United States. Despite progress in ending the reign of the Cali Cartel and Pablo Escobar, as chronicled in NARCOS (on Netflix) the drug trade continues, as suggested by recent arrests in the LA Times September 15th (Colombian leader of global drug ring extradited, charged in L.A.). Note that the key was again extradition (charging suspects to U.S. courts). Why does this matter?